I would never have imagined that I would drop off the face of blogging world for this long. Teaching? Yes. That took so much out of me. Here, let me tell the story.

When I walked into my classroom the Thursday before Halloween, I had no idea what I was getting into. I mean yeah, I knew I was going to be teaching 3rd grade Math, Science, and Social Studies. But other than that, there was no way I could have foresaw what would transpire or be prepared for the rest of the year.

By Christmas, I was extremely depressed. The students were wonderful, but it honestly felt like that was the only good in this situation. I had been thrown in my first day with no preparation. I didn’t even know where the teachers’ bathroom was. The kids were bulldozing me over even though I was trying my best to be an authority figure. I felt extremely alone and was usually staying at the school until 8 or even 9 a few nights a week to try and get a handle on everything.

Obviously, it got better.

By the end of the school year, I felt about 4 million bajillion times better and finally started feeling like I wasn’t drowning. It was especially awesome when I went in to sign my contract for next year! Yay!

On a completely lighter and more awesome note, I cannot believe how much I have come to love and care about my Sunday School girls this year. They are such a wonderful, warm, amazing part of my life and I can’t imagine life without them now.

I also became OBSESSED with the Hunger Games. I finished the entire series in 11 hours. Ridiculous. Then I heard about the movie and lost my mind. I finally FINALLY got into Pottermore, so there went more of my life. I just finished Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter in about 2 hours, so it’s nice to know my superpower is still intact.

We still love our little house. We have a fire pit and a hammock in the backyard, with a cornhole set. Probably one of my favorite things so far this summer has been sitting around the campfire planning stuff with our friends.

So now that I’m out for summer, maybe I’ll be better at blogging again!

I cannot believe it’s been since July that I posted. I’m a bad blogger now apparently. But that’s what happens when you get promoted to full time at work, so you’re working all the time and then trying to balance housekeeping, feeding both family and friends, baking, traveling, and trying to see your husband all at the same time!

The biggest news I have is… (not a baby) A TEACHING JOB! Hooray! Starting next month, I’ll be teaching 3rd grade math and science! I’m mostly excited about having a Smartboard in my room. I cannot believe I’m actually a real teacher now. I’ll have to leave Dick’s eventually, which makes me terribly sad. Being the worrier I am, of course I’m terrified that I’ll lose all my friends I have now. 😦

The second biggest news is… A HOUSE! Les and I are moving in December to our first non-apartment (but still renting) abode. Best of all, it has a beautiful yard! Welcome back, bonfires and as many people as we can cram into the house and carport! I’m so extremely excited, oh my goodness. We’ve never really lived anywhere that we can use the yard for whatever we want, or crank the music/movies as loud as we want, plant flowers, paint, really decorate. It has been so fun picking out paint colors and watching Les do to our own home what he does for a living.

In other news, it is becoming a beautiful Autumn here. I can still wear tshirts and flip flops, but I need hoodies in the morning and at night, which is perfect because they are soooo wonderful. The leaves are starting to turn and delicious coffees everywhere. It’s also Fair Time here at NC State. We went last week and stuffed ourselves with fair food. Delicioussssss.

The time that has passed between the last post and now has been full of really ups and really downs. My grandmother had a heart attack and a stroke, I became a full-time employee at work, and I have baked a LOT. Not just for other people. I actually made cupcakes just for Les and myself. I feel like I have been running around like a crazy person for the past two months.

In the very near future, Les and I (along with Michael and Brittani) are going to start teaching two youth Sunday schools! We are so excited. It’s been way too long since we were involved with a youth group. It’s sad to think about something that was a daily part of your life can just go away and leave a hole. We were so involved in Kentucky and here, we’ve just had a terrible longing to be part of it but haven’t really had a chance to make it happen. I’m so glad we’re back in!

Raleigh’s heat continues to amaze me. It was 105 today. With humidity. Even inside the store it was ridiculous. I went to eat lunch around 2 and it was smothering and painful outside just walking to the car. I’m beginning to be ready for fall weather and food. Chili and pumpkin foods specifically. Having friends with pools has been such a wonderful thing. So is having a fridge that continuously holds gallons of sweet tea!

All that without sleep. And being sick. That’s been me the past two weeks. I seriously may have died sometime between the last post and now. Is this real life?

So speaking of cake. I made a Miller Lite can cake for my beloved little David’s 21st birthday. Originally, I planned on a simple, 2-layer cake with some peanut butter frosting. But no. David had to go and get allll creative and desire a cake shaped like a can. And not just a regular can. He wanted a can filled with peanut butter and jelly. A “tuuuuubbbeee of jellyyyy!” So I made it happen, because I love him. It weighed about 11 pounds, had over a pound and a half of peanut butter, 2 pounds of powdered sugar, over a pound of fondant… it was a miraculous cake. I had never used fondant or cake spray paint before, but I think I did a pretty nice job just diving in without any practice!

It’s a beauty, right? lol

We had our nephew at our house for almost two weeks. I cannot believe this kid is already 14, is 6’2, and wears a size 14 shoe. Between him and Les, they drank about 4 gallons of milk. I have already begun praying that if I get the two boys I want, that the Lord provides us with enough money to be able to feed them! Teenage boys have bottomless stomachs.

Today I have the first real day off in about three weeks. We’ve either had to go home for the weekend or I’ve been too busy to actually do whatever I want on the few days I have had off. I have two REAL days off this week, and Thursday? GOING TO THA BEACH! But just for the day. Next week we’re going for real, for five whole gorgeous, amazing, wonderful days!

We got to go home for Easter this year and I seriously cannot describe how full my heart felt to sit in the same church with my family. It’s been a few years since that was able to happen. I am so incredibly humbled and thankful that I will be able to be in Heaven with my family, that I’ll see their faces and be able to be in the presence of my Jesus with them. I definitely do not deserve such a beautiful gift.

One of the days we were in Tennessee, I drove to my old stomping grounds in Johnson City to meet a friend for coffee. I haven’t been back there by myself since I’ve been married. Since we moved to Raleigh, I’ve thought a lot about those years I spent in and around that city during college. I can remember sometimes just driving around the backroads and down the main strip. I’d have the windows down and my radio on, the music playing and building the soundtrack to my memories. I’d have one flip flop on and that foot on the gas – the other shoe off and that foot up on the dash – my hair down and blowing around. I had no idea who I was going be, aside from a teacher and most likely Les’s wife. Going back to some of those roads was really nice, especially since I did become Les’s wife. 🙂

We also got to go visit our Clear Creek people. I will unashamedly admit that when we turned onto our old road and went around the first curve, nostalgia hit me full force and I absolutely bawled. Everything came flooding back – driving on that same road and going to our apartment for the first time, grocery trips, bonfires, impromptu cookouts and visits, cooking with my girlfriends and talking in the kitchen, sitting on our porch… wow. Les was such a good husband and didn’t say a word.

It’s funny to go back to where you’ve lived a life. You’re sad and grateful and laughing and crying all at the same time. Mostly grateful.

I cannot believe it’s been over a month since I posted last. It definitely doesn’t feel that long.

The past month has been ridiculously busy. Four weeks ago, my best friend’s brother found out he was being deployed about three months earlier than planned, so all of our lives shifted into overdrive. We were trying to fit all kinds of things in before he left, get all his stuff here from Camp LeJeune, help him with anything he needed. It was a rough goodbye last Monday… everything felt so abrupt and rushed. We got on base at 11:45 and Bryan left around 3. On top of everything, it was nasty weather – rainy and cold. Hopefully it’ll be better for his homecoming in February! Wonderful birthday present to the both of us!

I have some majorly amazing recipes I’m getting ready to try. Everybody at work is already salivating and begging for more cookies. I think I could work every day of the week and every single one of those days I would hear something about food/cookies. It’s times like that I feel like Superwoman. I may not be a lot of things, but man… I can cook. I have power.

For the past three weeks, I feel like I’m just teetering closer and closer to sinus craziness. For the majority of my life, I’ve had sinus infections and bronchitis twice a year – Spring and Fall. Somehow, the Spring before I got married, this anomaly disappeared. I thought, hooray! I can have a life during seasonal changes! And then that Fall I realized that my sinuses had just decided to pool resources and attack me full-force once a year instead of half-power twice a year. Great. So now I’m just waiting, feeling like I’m about to be ambushed when I least expect it.

Also, on Friday, I got Featherlocks in my hair. I got three of them (a bundle) – an orange grizzly (striped), a bright yellow, and a dark copper. It basically took five minutes and I was immediately in love. I wanted to go back before the end of the day and get more. I didn’t, but you better believe I’m going back this week and getting a bundle of chartreuse, blue, and purple!

It’s been a while since I posted pictures of things I’m baking, so I figured it was time for an update. Sunday is one of my dearest friend’s birthday, so I decided to make him a cake. Not just any cake would do, though. He’s been a Tarheel fan basically since birth and could tell you anything you ever wanted to know about UNC. So, obviously, it had to be a Carolina cake. I decided I wanted to make it chocolate, so I tried a new recipe and it was OH SO worth it. Absolutely delicious. I will be making it again! But this is about Birthday Boy’s cake, so here we go…

I really love how it looks like very fluffy scrambled eggs
when you cream butter and sugar.

I got really messy. Batter and cocoa powder everywhere.

I nailed the Carolina blue. Les was so proud. He kept coming to admire it.

One of my favorite parts of making any cake – putting the layers together.

I would love for you to click this for a closer look.
I outlined the logo then went back and star filled the inside.
Super time consuming but SO worth the payoff!

I added Happy Birthday and a chocolate Tarheel that I didn’t make.
Don’t think I’m that good!